6 elite tips for writers who want to remain excited about their writing for years
Writing and sharing your ideas online is one thing, but writing for many months and years consistently is another thing altogether.
I’ve been writing and sharing my stuff pretty much every day for close to fifteen years, and I didn’t always love it.
It’s not uncommon to hear people talk about how hard long term writing can be if they can’t find a way to enjoy the process.
Here are some ways to do that so you get the long-term traction you’re looking for:
1. View your writing as a craft to master.
Writing must under no circumstances be viewed as ‘just another mode of communication.’
This gets boring fast, and you will likely jump from writing articles and newsletters to cringingly over-the-top youtube video presentations.
Writers who write for decades see their work as a beautiful craft that gets care, love, attention, and careful refinement each and every time they sit down to beat keys.
Write to be the absolute best, not just to throw your two cents into a steaming pile of written shite.
2. Adopt writing personas.
You don’t need to be ‘you’ when you sit down to write.
You can adopt any one persona from a whole suite of characters or versions of you to help you cough words out with little effort.
You can take on an aggressive voice or an optimistic approach.
You can be super cheeky and make light of stuff others usually take seriously. The truth is none of us has a ‘personality.’
We just think we do, and this limits us.
We can take advantage of this fact by having fun with new personas that ultimately serve your process and make for happy readers.
3. Go vertical on topics.
Writing gets interesting when you find ways to squeeze all the juice out of particular topics, problems and bits of subject matter.
I’m not saying stop exploring the horizontal range - it’s good to remain curious and play with fresh ideas and topics.
But if you’re continually scratching the surface, such superficiality will be felt as ‘meh’.
In my case, exploring the nuances of human behaviour has kept my excitement high for finding out more - both through writing, but also through continued research.
You won’t be rewarded with the insights gained from deepening your expertise, and you may find yourself burning out sooner than you need to.
4. Stop separating physical movement from writing.
What we hear about well-known writers over the course of history hasn’t exactly been synonymous with great health.
And it’s easy to separate treating our bodies well from the process of writing.
In reality, the two are closely connected.
We think of writing as an intellectual act, but it’s more of a physical dance.
Exercising, stretching, meditating and walking complement good writing because they enliven the mind.
When the body is buzzing and in good health, your words reflect this. Daily movement is a must.
5. Consider good grammar and ‘saying the right thing’ last, not first.
You shoot yourself in the leg if you’re in the wrong writing mode too early.
By this, I mean you’re trying to write when in editing mode, as so many people do, when you need to be relaxed.
You write from an overly analytical perspective that sees you checking over every comma and clause (worried what your boss will think) as you write.
This stunts expressive writing and makes the process miserable as all hell.
When filling a blank page with fresh words, you need to put on your create ‘whatever the hell comes to mind cool shit’ thinking hat.
Be willing to write poor words, and you will enter into a flow quicker than you can say: ‘I’m a writing legend.’
6. Connect with your inner intelligence.
Here’s a super-effective way to reach a wall with your writing and want to give up: communicate from your ego instead of your soul.
This sounds ‘woo-woo’ but it’s the plain, hard truth.
You know very well from personal experience that when you stop trying to interfere with your judgy thoughts and just freaking relax for a moment, you fall into a flow that feels almost effortless.
It’s like you’ve been lifted by an invisible force that runs beneath all your clever opinions feeding you with insights that just feel right.
That’s your innate intelligence speaking, and it comes from a source deeper than your personal thoughts.
This may take some loosening up via free-writing first, and that’s fine.
Keep going, and you will make the connection.
Originally published in Mastery Den, January 18, 2023
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